Jockson

I sanded the fretboard some more and it became even worse even though I drew a center line on the sanding block and sanded carefully. Then a friend of mine helped me to set up a router jig and it's perfect now! It took us a few hours but it was worth it BUT, the board is now 5mm thick at the center. Is this thick enough?

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm using one block for a continual 12" radius and a matching fret pressing caul. The block is not from stewmac but it's supposed be the same radius. When I compare them now, they indeed do not match perfectly (have to look really hard to tell the difference, however). The radius on the block is tighter, so I guess at least that is a good thing I will try the suggested method and if that doesn't work for me, I'll set up a router jig if the fretboard doesn't become too thin already. I didn't carve the back of the neck yet so it's still square. So although it will be hard to set up the jig now, it won't be impossible.

I'm trying to radius a fretboard using a radius sanding block and I'm not getting very good results. The board ends up straight at the center but the sides are always a little uneven and "over radiused" at places (I can see that when I put the Stewmac fret pressing caul against the fretboard). I think the reason for that is my inability to keep the block perfectly aligned at all times. How accurately do you guys do this by using this method (radius sanding blocks)? I would use a router jig but it would be hard to set it up now as the fretboard is already glued to the neck. I'm not really a fan of "close enough is good enough" approach but if I get it right within say 0.2mm across the whole board, is that good enough considering I have to level the frets later (and therefore "fix" the problem)? I don't want to keep sanding as the board could end up being too thin and the radius that I'm getting is not getting any better. Any advice, tips or perhaps an alternative method? Is it worth the effort to set up a router jig now?

Hehe, the fret slots are on target. I planned everything ahead and the fretboard looks just the way I wanted... at least it does when looking at more than 15-20 centimeters away. From close up, it looks very weird and I'm not satisfied with that at all. I can see the pores are not going straight with the board. I think I'm gonna give up trying to build a guitar. I already spent too much money on this thing (already wasted one body blank due to innacurate template, one neck blank because I messed up the headstock and now two fingerboard blanks) not to mention all the tools that I bought. I can't see myself ever finishing this guitar and being satisfied with it. I'm a perfectionist with no ability and skill to make things "perfect" and that's frustrating me to no end. Hats off to you guys who manage to finish your builds. I have to admit it did seem a little easier than it is.

Titebond? Really? I never thought about using a wood glue for that job. That's even better cause I hate working with CA! GuitarGuy, thanks for the tips Now I've got another problem. Don't know should I post it in another topic as it's a different issue altogether but I'll try here first. The second board that I slotted has a beautiful wavy grain so I used the board in a way that it follows that grain the way I liked. Then I tapered the board and the actual grain pattern looks fine BUT when I look closely I can see the pores are going in a different direction (not straight with the board but at a slight angle) Here's an illustration of how I used the fingerboard blank: http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3259/rguo9.jpg Was this another stupid idea and another board wasted?

I built a shooting board for a tablesaw for cutting the fret slots. I did one fretboard which I screwed up later. In the meantime, the table saw died on me so I got another, cheaper one. I modified the jig, installed it on the new table saw and cut the slots on another board. When I finished, I checked everything and all slots were cut perfectly parallel etc. however they are a tiny bit wider than before. I think this is because the new table saw isn't as "precise" (it probably "wobbles" a little) but the difference is very small. In the Koch book it says "The fret slots should ideally be of exactly the same width as the fretwire (without barb) or only marginally (by 0.1mm) less wide". I measured the slots and they are 0.05mm (1/500 of an inch) WIDER than the fretwire (without barb). I will use CA glue when installing the frets. Is this going to be a problem? I tried hammering (I will use an arbor press on the real fretboard) a fret in both the old and new board and it was harder to hammer the fret in and harder to pull it out on the old board. The fret on the new board was not loose by any means, it was just noticeably easier to pull it out. Is using this board a bad idea? Am I making a big deal out of nothing or should I just order a preslotted board (which I would hate considering the money i spent on the Stewmac blade and templates). Thanks.

They will not show up later because I already routed and carved everything before using the screws, so no worries there Basically, I glued this piece endgrain to endgrain, routed out all cavities and then after hearing that engrain to endgrain is not a good idea I used screws to reinforce the joint. Is it a problem that I drilled and put in screws AFTER the glue had already dried for a couple of days? Hi Jockson, It's bad. There are a few different types of joints you can use. For example, you could rabbit the ends of both peices and slot them together. The long grain (not that there would be much of it in this case) must be really smooth before glue up. This will make a better joint because of the long grain contact. Someone mentioned dowls, which is a good idea but it's still end grain with no long grain contact. Glue up using epoxy sounds good, since there won't be significant stress. I wouldn't use screws, but that's a personal preference not that it won't work. Regards, Michael Thanks Michael. Rabbet joint is an excellent idea but after doing all this, it's a little too late for it. I already carved the body and rounded off the edges so if I were to cut this piece again, it just wouldn't be worth messing with it anymore. In future, I will definitely not use screws again in situations like this. Anyone else think screws are not a good idea?

So, this is what I ended up doing: I used some fairly long (around 2") screws to reinforce the joint (from the side where the strap button is located) and filled the holes afterwards so that they're invisible. Is this ANOTHER terribly bad idea? Now that it isn't going anywhere (it seems that the screws alone are strong enough to hold it even if there was no glue), what are the chances of the glue joint showing under the paint later? I couldn't use the internet for some time and couldn't read replies earlier otherwise I would have tried with dowels and/or using the tip that fryovanni posted. In the mean time, I bought some more Mahogany and started building a new body. I'm gonna use this one for practicing so if it turns out OK, great. If not, at least I learned something Thanks for replies.

I'm making my first guitar and I made a mistake on the template so the body ended up a little shorter than I wanted. Unfortunetaly, I realised that after I cut and routed out the body so I cut the body and glued another piece of wood to make it right. Now, everything is nice and flat and it will be invisible since I was gonna paint it anyway. However, I just heard that gluing endgrain to endgrain is a terribly bad idea and that's exactly the way I did it It's not a big piece (around 4cm at the widest point) and is at guitar's "butt" where it won't be affected by string tension. Here's what it looks like: Any chance of this joint not falling off by itself, lol? I do understand why endgrain to endgrain gluing is weaker but how weak it really is? Any other potential problems with this? Should I throw this guitar into garbage and buy another piece of mahogany? Thanks!